With just the final game of the Brooklyn series and the series against San Antonio to come in July it has proved to be a crap month for Louisville. With just seven wins from the 23 games in the month the Sluggers are now 10 games below .500 and not really looking as though that’s going to improve. The front office has confirmed that they’re not at the point of breaking it all up this season but have hinted that changes will be made before the trade deadline.
While Doug Clement has been a reasonable success in his first year in the rotation he isn’t really a #3 pitcher but worse is Mario Villarreal. Despite pitching a no-hitter early in the season, he has slumped and now owns a six-game losing streak and has only one win in the last nine starts. In his last 10 starts he has surrendered 54 runs and is showing no signs of any repeat of last year’s form. Word is now that the franchise is losing patience with him and are looking to trade him before the deadline. In the meantime, 30-yr-old Ken Vazquez, who is 0-3 with a 3.38 ERA out of the pen, will get a shot at a short-term spell in the rotation.
Villarreal's three inconsistant years may spell the end of his time in Louisville
Rumours also abound that while Sluggers are not considering major changes to the lineup they are looking at perhaps the composition of the 25-man roster. Several of the bench players aren’t contributing as GM Laverick would like and the management & scouting team have been pouring over organisational charts with a view to plugging in some of the franchise’s promising youngsters. Brian Clough snapped out of his mini-slump with eight hits last week including two homers and now just needs 23 hits to reach the magic 3,000 mark. With him expected to hit his goal around the start of September there is a lot of whispers that he might not see much playing time in September and instead Sluggers might audition the DH role. Clough at 42 with 20 years in a Sluggers uniform is out of contract and his 0.1 WAR so far this year might not be enough to earn him the $7.5 million extension his agent is currently seeking. Shag Hopkins recently became the second player to sign a six-year extension this season after Sean Maguire, both with only four years guaranteed though. Hopkins was thought worthy of the extension after the scouting department couldn’t come up with a replacement catcher they felt would be better or even equal to Hopkins over the next three / four years.
While it might be a while before Louisville hits the heights of the last six year’s 90+ win seasons there will certainly be changes as the Sluggers transition from Genius to Laverick
